A Chorus of Angels

After years of flying solo, angel investors are forming into groups–and changing the rules for cash-hungry entrepreneurs.

National Association of Seed and Venture Funds (NASVF)

The National Association of Seed and Venture Funds is an organization of private, public and nonprofit organizations committed to building their local economies by investing and facilitating investment in local entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurial Culture Clash

Entrepreneurs come in two flavors-near-term and future-oriented. They mix like oil and water, but companies need both to sustain innovation and execute brilliantly. This piece talks about how to strike the right balance.

Ruben Vardanian at the Helm of Troika Dialog

Ruben Vardanian, CEO of Troika, is a “Golden Boy of Russian capitalism”. Unlike his fellow members of the Russian oligarchs’ club, Vardanian started from scratch and climbed upwards. This case, Ruben Vardanian at the Helm of Troika Dialog by Stanislav Shekshnia, Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at INSEAD with Manfred Kets de Vries, Raoul de Vitry d’Avaucourt Professor of Human Resource Management at INSEAD scrutinizes Vardanian’s … [ Read more ]

Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit

All over the globe, executives in the private, public and non-profit sectors think entrepreneurial behavior is key to the overall success of their organization and the competitiveness of their countries. Yet the entrepreneurial spirit is proving elusive. Only four in ten executives think their organizations are very entrepreneurial today. Why?

We conducted interviews with 880 senior executives in 22 countries to identify barriers to entrepreneurial … [ Read more ]

Must we all be entrepreneurs now?

Entrepreneurship is once again fashionable with policymakers, business schools, large corporations and the media. But in the light of the dot-com crash, many wonder whether it can provide the much needed spark to re-ignite growth. What exactly is the link between rates of new business formation and the wider performance of an economy? Can large corporations replicate the conditions in which small companies successfully innovate … [ Read more ]

The Accidental Business Coach

What used to take weeks of research and strategic planning can now be done in an hour or less, with tools like Site Build It! and others.

Even if you have an existing business, these tools are a great way to identify strengths and weaknesses in both your business and marketing plans. You can even use them to figure out the language to use in your … [ Read more ]

John Doerr

I never invest in someone who says they’re going to do something; I invest in people who say they’re already doing something and just want funding.

Zero Gravity: Riding Venture Capital from High Tech Start-Up to Breakout IPO

In the world of venture capital, investors look for deals that will return 10 to 20 times their original investment, although sometimes they do much, much better. Venture capitalists are looking for many things: not only a company that can dominate a business category, but one that will eventually be worth at least a half-billion dollars. And even if an entrepreneur can present a business … [ Read more ]

The Magic Number

Every business has a magic number. By employing his, our columnist didn’t overstaff this year.

Dan Case (former CEO of Hambrecht & Quist)

The catch-22 that early-stage companies always face is that they must weigh the advantage of time to market against the risk of not building a strong enough foundation. The situation gets played out in almost every decision made: product completeness versus product breadth, distribution strategy, capital structure, geography. Entrepreneurial companies have to fight that trade-off all the time.

Inventive Colossus: Thomas Edison And Entrepreneurial Leadership

America’s greatest inventor spawned many businesses; in fact his work led to the creation of entire industries. Edison was a prodigious worker, challenger of the status quo and identifier of opportunities. What can todays leaders learn from Edison and how does he rate against our modern criteria for leaders?

Bargaining Power – Effective Venture Capital Contracts Come in Many Forms

How much can venture capitalists protect themselves against losses if an investment goes bad? How much control should entrepreneurs be prepared to give up? What happens to both parties when a new venture succeeds? To successfully tackle the good, bad, and in-between stages of new ventures, writing the appropriate financial contract is key.

The Map of Innovation: Creating Something Out of Nothing

What if innovation could be made routine-if assembly-line procedures could churn out brilliant ideas on command? O’Connor, the founder of online ad wholesaler DoubleClick and an unremitting entrepreneur, relishes innovative ideas-from a youthful scheme to shock a troublesome raccoon to DVD rentals that self-destruct instead of having to be returned-and offers here a “reproducible” process that will “force innovation” and “improve both the numbers and … [ Read more ]

From Buyouts To Small Biz

Mezzanine funds, big players in the mega-mergers of the 1980s, now cast their net in search of smaller growth firms.

Brave New World: Eight Steps to a Winning Startup

Accenture research has identified eight critical factors that startups must get right early in their lifecycles and must manage effectively to be successful. That old management adage “Stay focused on two or three things you do well” probably still works for a large, developed organization. But it is too simplistic for a startup. The start up CEO must be vigilant about keeping the entire constellation … [ Read more ]

Timothy J. Rohner

Corporations typically run on annual budget cycles, but new ventures can’t. They need money when they need money-typically, a commitment of funding should come every few months. Those commitments should come only after the venture has reached clearly defined milestones. Poker players will tell you that, in seven-card stud, most of the money is lost on the fourth and fifth cards, as players indulge the … [ Read more ]